Family Portrait (Modern Family)

"Family Portrait"
Modern Family episode
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 24
Directed by	Jason Winer
Written by	Ilana Wernick
Production code	1ARG22
Original air date	May 19, 2010
Guest stars
Kobe Bryant as himself Sean Smith as photographer
Season 1 episodes
2009–2010 "Pilot" "The Bicycle Thief" "Come Fly With Me" "The Incident" "Coal Digger" "Run for Your Wife" "En Garde" "Great Expecations" "Fizbo" "Undeck the Halls" "Up All Night" "Not in My House" "Fifteen Percent" "Moon Landing" "My Funky Valentine" "Fears" "Truth Be Told" "Starry Night" "Game Changer" "Benched" "Travels with Scout" "Airport 2010" "Hawaii" "Family Portrait"   Season 2 →
Episode chronology
← Previous "Hawaii" Next → "The Old Wagon"

"Family Portrait" is the twenty-fourth episode and the season finale of the first season of Modern Family. It originally premiered May 19, 2010 on American Broadcasting Company (ABC).

In the episode, Claire (Julie Bowen) makes an effort to take a new family portrait, but everybody is too busy to cooperate: Gloria (Sofía Vergara) and Manny (Rico Rodriguez) go with Phil (Ty Burrell) and Alex (Ariel Winter) to a Lakers game and share an awkward moment on the jumbotron, Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) gets a job as a wedding singer while Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) takes care of Lily and a stray pigeon, and Luke interviews Jay for a school project.

The episode was written by Ilana Wernick and directed by Jason Winer and guest stars Kobe Bryant and Sean Smith. The episode features references to Willy Wonka. "Family Portrait" became the second highest rated show in the series history and received positive reviews from critics with many praising the scene where Mitchell attempts to murder the pigeon and Cameron singing Ave Maria.

Plot

Claire's perfect plans for a beautiful family portrait are pulled apart by various mishaps. Phil takes Alex to a Lakers game with Gloria and Manny, but he ignores a phone call from Claire and then begrudgingly kisses Gloria because of the "Kiss-Cam" (the former televised and seen by Claire and Haley, though Phil thinks the latter is seen by them). Mitchell battles a stray pigeon in his house with Lily but destroys the house, Cameron gets a job as a wedding singer, Luke finds Jay's stories for a school project boring so Jay invents much more exciting ones, and Haley gets a pimple and tries to get her mom to postpone the portrait. All the while Claire battles the Dunphys' broken stair.

Nonetheless, Claire gets the whole family, perfectly dressed and on time (barely) for the picture, but her perfectionism finally gets to Jay and he starts a mud fight, dirtying their perfect white costumes. She is forced to let go of the perfect family portrait, and instead they take a series of fun pictures in varying positions. While later hanging the framed picture, Claire admits that she loves the result more than any perfectly-posed family portrait.

Production

The episode was written by Ilana Wenick and directed by Jason Winer. The episode also guest stars Kobe Bryant as himself in a short cameo and guest stars Sean Smith as the photographer. Pau Gasol and Luke Walton guest starred in the episode, but their parts were cut from the episode. This was revealed by ABC representative, Yani Chang by e-mail. The episode is also being included on the DVD, the episode will have a "Making of" for the season 1 DVD as well. Jesse Tyler Ferguson was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for playing Mitchell Pritchett.

Cultural references

Cameron sings the song Ave Maria at the wedding. The same scene where the song Ave Maria is played while Mitchell is trying to kill the bird is very similar to John Woo movies. The scene is also similar to The Godfather. Phil tells Luke to go through the sprinkler "The Hurt Locker" way, in a very tacked on reference to the film The Hurt Locker. Phil makes a reference to Willy Wonka. Mitchell's trouble with the pigeon has certain echoes with Patrick Süskind's novella, The Pigeon.

Reception

In its original American broadcast, "Family Portrait" was viewed by an estimated 10.01 million households receiving a 4.2 rating/11% share in the 18-49 demographic becoming the second highest rated episode of the series history. It also beat American Idol in the Men 18-34 demographic and became the Wednesday's #1 Scripted Show for the 12th consecutive week. "Family Portrait" ranked 10th in the 18-49 demographic weekly ratings becoming the 4th highest rated episode and the 3rd highest rated show of the week on American Broadcasting Company and 21st in the weekly total viewers the 6th most viewed episode and 4th most viewed show of the week on American Broadcasting Company.

Robert Canning gave the episode a 9.2 saying it was "Outstanding" and "So as great as Maui was, "Family Portrait" was indeed the best way to end Modern Family's premiere season." Donna Bowman of A.V. Club gave the episode a "A-" writing "no way Claire manages to calm down enough about her ruined picture at the scene, although I can buy her loving the picture after the fact -- almost everything else that happened tonight made me cringe because I recognized some part of myself or my family in it." Jason Hughes of TV Squad remarked "Lucky for me, it was brilliant and packed with far, far more goodness to enjoy."

Emily Exton of Entertainment Weekly gave the episode a positive review and stated that Luke was the best character of the episode once again saying "From falling asleep to his grandfather’s stories about the ’60s, to being plastic-wrapped and walking Hurt Locker-style (pure genius!) across the lawn, I’ve grown to appreciate and crave his hilarious and slightly delayed responses to things." TV Fanatic gave the episode a 4.4 writing " already considered your opening season one of the strongest in TV history. Did you really have to prove that this week by even making Kobe Bryant funny?!?" Alison Stern-Dunyak of BuddyTV said the best moment of the episode was "Most prominent, however, was the show's best sequence, a lengthy, nearly wordless scene that cut between Cameron singing "Ave Maria" at a wedding and Mitchell destroying their home chasing an invading pigeon."

James Poniewozik of Time stated "Portrait" set out to do what some of Modern Family's best episodes have done, notably "Fizbo," in my opinion the show's best episode overall: it moves the characters toward one central event, setting in place the elements for both hilarious disaster and a moment of catharsis. "Portrait" did that" and he also loved the The Godfather parody scene. The episode is also currently nominated for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Picture Editing For A Comedy Series (Single Or Multi-Camera) and is also nominated along with the first episode of Modern Family

External links

• "Family Portrait" at ABC.com
• "Family Portrait" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Family Portrait" at TV.com